The U.S. Has Fired 850 Tomahawks at Iran in 5 Weeks — That’s 25% of the Entire Stockpile and the Factories Only Build 90 Per Year
The US air campaign against Iran, Operation Epic Fury, has been militarily very successful, severely degrading Iran’s ballistic missile stockpiles, missile launchers, and its senior leadership.
Decapitation strikes have eliminated over 40 senior military and political leaders, and US and Israeli air strikes have hit over 1,000 targets.
However, after several weeks of unrelenting airstrikes, the US is facing a significant strain on its Tomahawk missile stockpile due to high usage in the recent operations against Iran, now and back in June, raising concerns about inventory levels for potential, larger-scale engagements.
Artist’s concept of an Ohio-class SSGN launching Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles.
The Washington Post claims that the US has fired 850 Tomahawks thus far during the airstrikes against Iranian targets. That is about a quarter of the entire missile supply, leaving the military with about 3,000 missiles to handle any further contingencies in Iran or, more importantly, against China should the need arise.
Is the Tomahawk cruise missile the right weapon for the future, considering how fast the military is burning through them?
The Missile Isn’t The Issue, Its The Replenishment Rate:
While not completely exhausted, current replenishment rates are slow—often under 100-200 units annually—and struggling to keep pace with operational consumption, creating a long-term supply vulnerability.
“Manufacturers just can’t make them fast enough,” said Vertical Research Partners analyst Rob Stallard. “There was already way more [missile] demand than supply, and [Iran] exacerbates the issue.” How bad the acute pressure gets depends on how long the conflict lasts.
The US War Department has been talking with defense contractors about boosting the production rates for not just Tomahawks but Patriot missiles, THAADs, and other weapons to ensure our warfighters stay equipped.
It isn’t that the Tomahawks aren’t hitting the targets. It is that the missiles are so flexible and so accurate, with long ranges, that they have protected US pilots, destroying targets until the US and Israel achieved air superiority and took down Iran’s defenses.
USS Iowa 19FortyFive image of Tomahawk Missiles on USS Iowa.
The Tomahawk Missile Has Been America’s Workhorse:
The Tomahawk cruise missile is a precision weapon that is launched from ships, submarines, and ground launchers and can strike targets precisely from 1,500 miles away, even in heavily defended airspace.
The Tomahawk can be launched from Vertical Launch Systems (VLS) on cruisers, destroyers, and submarines (which can also launch the Tomahawk from torpedo tubes on some SSNs).
Tomahawk missiles are launched by using a solid-fueled booster rocket and carried to their target by a turbofan jet engine. The Tomahawk, with its range, is a standoff weapon, launched from far away to protect Navy ships or aircraft from enemy defenses.
The Tomahawk then skims along the ocean’s surface at 550 mph and uses satellite-assisted navigation and TERCOM (Terrain Contour Matching) radar to guide it to a target up to approximately 1,500 miles away. It can carry either a conventional or a nuclear warhead.
Key Technical Specifications:
Manufacturer: Raytheon
Length: 18.25 ft (5.56 m) to 20.3 ft (6.25 m) with booster
Diameter: 20.4–21 inches
Weight: 2,900–3,330 lbs (1,300–1,500 kg)
Wingspan: 8.6–8.9 ft (2.6–2.7 m)
Speed: High subsonic (550 mph or Mach 0.74)
Range: Up to 1,500+ miles (900–1,350+ nautical miles depending on variant)
Warhead: 1,000 lb (450 kg) conventional unitary warhead or submunitions dispenser
Variants: The current primary variant is the Block IV/V (Tactical Tomahawk)
Tomahawk Box on USS Iowa. 19FortyFive.com Image.
The newest Block Va can now hit moving targets at sea, which is called the Maritime Strike Tomahawk.
The Maritime Strike Tomahawk (MST), or RGM/UGM-109E Block Va, is a U.S. Navy anti-ship cruise missile designed to destroy moving enemy vessels at ranges over 1,000 miles.
It upgrades Block IV Tomahawks with advanced, multi-mode seekers for terminal guidance, achieving Early Operational Capability (EOC) in late 2025 and Full Operational Capability (IOC) by FY2027.
US officials and experts have raised concerns that Tomahawk stockpiles are being drained after their use against targets in Iran, with US Navy warships having fired over 400 missiles in the first few days of Operation Epic Fury.
Increasing The Stockpile Of Tomahawk Cruise Missiles: The Math Problem
The U.S. military has an estimated stockpile of roughly 4,000 to 4,150 Tomahawk cruise missiles. While thousands have been procured over the past three decades, significant numbers have been expended in combat, and production remains low, with only 57 new missiles requested in the 2026 budget.
The estimated 850 missiles fired so far constitute 25 percent of the current US inventory in just five weeks of combat operations. That rate of usage is unsustainable and is raising concerns about an “empty rack” scenario if a situation unfolds in the Indo-Pacific involving China, which is certainly monitoring this situation with interest.
Currently, the U.S. produces approximately 90 to 100 Tomahawk cruise missiles per year, with recent procurement planned for 2026 at around 57 to 60 units. Due to surging demand, RTX (Raytheon) is increasing production, with long-term plans to boost annual output to over 1,000.
In 2024, Japan ordered 400 Tomahawks to equip its destroyers with land attack capabilities.
Annual production of SM-6 – the Navy’s versatile missile that can down ballistic threats, conduct maritime strikes, and is now being fitted as an air-to-air capability on F/A-18 Super Hornets – will be bolstered to over 500 units.
Alex Hollings of Air Power posted on “X” the production surges expected by the United States over the next couple of years, not just the Tomahawk, but the JASSM/LRASM, AMRAAM, PAC-3 MSE, THAAD, and the SM-6.
Tomahawk Missile Slow Production Woes
Tomahawk missile production is primarily slowed by a combination of a fragile, specialized supply chain, long manufacturing lead times, and historically low-volume purchasing that left production lines “cold”.
ABOARD USS CAPE ST. GEORGE (CG 71) AT SEA — A Tomahawk cruise missile launches from USS Cape St. George, operating in the eastern Mediterranean Sea in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. (Photo by IS1 Kenneth Moll, USS Cape St. George) (Released by Sixth Fleet Public Affairs)
While the U.S. Navy is working to increase production to over 1,000 missiles a year, significant bottlenecks remain.
Some of the factors limiting production include, but are not limited to:
Solid rocket motor shortages- The supply chain for propulsion systems is extremely thin, with only a few specialized subcontractors capable of manufacturing them.
Single-source components are a constant issue. Many of the thousands of precision parts in each missile, such as advanced seekers and terrain-matching sensors, rely on a single supplier, creating major bottlenecks if that vendor slows down.
Long lead times: It can take up to 2 years to build a single Tomahawk due to the complex, specialized components.
Unstable procurement history- Past government decisions to slow, pause, or cancel orders led manufacturers to maintain minimum production rates (around 90 units per year) to keep lines from going completely “cold,” making rapid scaling difficult.
Expanding production requires hiring and training new workers, as well as upgrading manufacturing facilities, both of which take time.
Despite these issues, the Navy is attempting to increase production, with reports indicating a potential, though challenging, move toward boosting output to meet the high demand driven by conflicts in the Middle East and potential needs in the Pacific.
Image of land-based Tomahawk missile from the 1980s.
Will Air Superiority Over Iran Lessen The Need For Tomahawks?
While the establishment of air superiority over Iran in the past month allows US and Israeli forces to shift toward using manned aircraft and cheaper short-range precision munitions, the usage of Tomahawk cruise missiles is likely to decrease quickly, as the US and Israel continue to degrade Iranian defenses.
The air superiority factor was clearly illustrated on March 2, when CENTCOM confirmed that three B-1B Lancer bombers flew from Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota and conducted strikes against Iranian ballistic missile sites and command-and-control infrastructure.
The “BONE” can carry a large number of long-range cruise missiles, including variants of the AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), enabling it to strike from hundreds of kilometers away. That enables the bomber to contribute significant firepower without entering the highest-risk engagement areas.
The B-1B in a “bomb truck” mode can carry an incredible 75,000 lbs (34,019 kg) internal + 50,000 lbs (22,679 kg) external, totaling 125,000 lbs of ordnance.
Air superiority over Iran allows for greater flexibility, and the ongoing nature of the conflict suggests that the “heavy hammer” role of other ordnance will remain vital.
At sea aboard USS Stethem (DDG 63) Ð A Tactical Tomahawk Cruise Missile launches from the guided missile destroyer USS Stethem (DDG 63) during a live-warhead test. The missile traveled 760 nautical miles to successfully impact itÕs intended target on San Clemente Island, part of the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) test range in Southern California. The Tactical Tomahawk is the next generation of Tomahawk cruise missile, adds the capability to reprogram the missile while in-flight to strike any of 15 preprogrammed alternate targets, or redirect the missile to any Global Positioning System (GPS) target coordinates. It also will be able to loiter over a target area for some hours, and with its on-board TV camera, will allow the war fighting commanders to assess battle damage of the target, and, if necessary redirect the missile to any other target. Launched from the Navy’s forward-deployed ships and submarines, Tactical Tomahawk will provide a greater flexibility to the on-scene commander. Tactical Tomahawk is scheduled to join the fleet in 2004. U.S. Navy photo. (RELEASED)
Mark Cancian from the Center for Strategic and International Studies spoke with Military Times about the cost differential once air superiority is achieved.
He said, “A Tomahawk costs something like $3.5 million apiece and has a range of 1,000 miles, depending on the version.”
“A JDAM, which is a guidance kit put on a dumb bomb, has a range of maybe 20 miles, but cost $80,000 and has the same explosive effect and the same accuracy. So if you can use a JDAM, much better, but that means you have to get close.”
So, the Tomahawk’s high rate of usage is a direct result of how good the missiles are. But the Congress, the defense contractors, and the services need to step up procurement, or risk being short in the next war. And that is unacceptable.
About the Author: Steve Balestrieri
Steve Balestrieri is a National Security Columnist. He served as a US Army Special Forces NCO and Warrant Officer. In addition to writing on defense, he covers the NFL for PatsFans.com and is a member of the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA). His work was regularly featured in many military publications.
